With the release of Gran Turismo 7, fans are stunned to see what the game has to offer in every department. Whether we talk about storyline, graphics, or gameplay, this game has perfected every aspect of a game for fans of vehicular combustion (and electricity!).

The blend of nostalgia and future is ironic but honestly, Gran Turismo 7 is more than just a nostalgic experience. It’s near perfection. Gran Turismo 7 (or GT7) is one of the best Gran Turismo games, thanks to the addition of new races and epic cars.

Storyline

When we drop right into the game, we are presented with the GT Cafe. A new mode in Gran Turismo 7 where you must win races and learn a lot of the car’s history. The owner of GT Cafe will assign you a lot of missions and right from the get-go, the storyline is fast-paced.

GT Cafe is also known as the campaign mode in GT 7 and your main mission, just like all the other epic Gran Turismo titles, is to win races, collect cars, and perform record-breaking races that you’ll get in your 39 menu book.

Being one of the most immersive racing titles, Gran Turismo will make you experience everything from how you obtain a license, buying or selling cars, customizing the cars, and racing with your favourite one.

The collection of beautiful cars will keep you at your toes, making you want more epic vehicles. However, one disappointing fact about Gran Turismo 7 is the fact that you might not like the diversity in your garage, unlike the previous titles.

Let’s hope there will be many horses added to the stable in due course – promises by the development team suggest this is the case.

Is Gran Turismo’s Gameplay Any Good?

Talking about the gameplay, it is as perfect as it can get. The handling is unlike anything we’ve ever seen and it is drastically different – yet better – compared to Gran Turismo Sport.

And what we loved about the cars is the fact that each car is different in handling, look, and feel. So if you choose an old car, the driving mechanism is so realistic that it’ll feel rather loose and bereft of electronic creature comforts to you.

You can play the game on both Steering Wheel or Dualsense controller and thanks to the awesome specifications of PlayStation 5, the game can run like nothing before it.

On the flip side of all the positivity, you might be disappointed to hear that this time you cannot sell cars even if you wanted to.

There’s no option for selling cars and it’s a bummer, especially considering that buying and selling cars can put you miles ahead of other players. Moreover, the game also features a custom race creator, so if you love making the rules, this game is for you.

Graphics

Gran Turismo 7 has the most gorgeous graphics of any racing game you can play today. I loved the smaller details that the company has put into every inch of the game. And as you expect from a next-gen PlayStation game, Gran Turismo runs smoothly on 4k however, with 60 FPS.

Lighting and shadows, flying out of the tunnel and just experiencing the gorgeous world of Gran Turismo 7 will guarantee you unforgettable racing moments – captured forever in gorgeous replays. The only bummer is that you can’t play the game on 120 Hz.

But who knows, shortly, the company might bring us lots of new options.

In addition to all this, the company also added motion blur, making the users immerse fully in the game. However, this feature is missing on the PlayStation 4 and it is PlayStation 5 exclusive.

But you can access motion blur on PS4 if you lower the resolution down to 1080p – a worthy sacrifice to deliver an incomparable sense of speed in a console racing game.

Ray Tracing vs Performance Mode

As the game runs on PlayStation 5, you can expect a lot of exciting stuff. Right off the bat, you’ll be presented with two options: a performance mode and a Ray Tracing mode. The performance mode will optimize, providing you with the best frame rates and overall performance.

On the other hand, Ray Tracing Mode will enable things like replay, photo mode, and essentially everything other than the races themselves.

Even though the graphics are world-class, the loading times are awesome. You’ll be able to load the game in just between 4-10 seconds which is super impressive.

All in all, the performance on both PS5 and PS4 is amazing.

Lowered Currency Rewards Controversy

Even though there are a lot of plus points to Gran Turismo 7, you can’t expect everything to be perfect. Fans were already pissed by the inability to sell cars in the game but the new patch (Version 1.07) made it worse. Even though there were many small adjustments to the game in this Patch, the currency rewards have decreased significantly.

The in-game currency has been reduced and rewards have been lowered. Hence, it is difficult for players to unlock new cars and this microtransaction controversy has got fans from all over the world riled up.

This makes Gran Turismo 7 a rather hard to complete game since you literally can’t sell a single car in this game. This shattered the dreams of many OG Gran Turismo players. Especially considering that the game costs around $70, the company is exploiting the players.

Summary

Gran Turismo 7 is clearly more than just your usual racing game, steeping you in the fine leather, smooth jazz and exorbitant prices common to the hypercar lifestyle.

Just like its predecessors, Gran Turismo 7 handily retains its title of the ‘real driving simulator’, even in light of the microtransaction controversy.

The driving experiences will leave you euphoric, and you’ll be surprised to see how much graphics and gameplay in addition to the all-new Dualsense controller can immerse you in a title like Gran Turismo 7.

Max Boker

The post Gran Turismo 7 Review – Playstation 5 appeared first on CRISP..

There are few launch titles better to showcase a new console than a driving game, and Codemasters Cheshire has taken up the mantle with Dirt 5, the latest installment in their mud flinging franchise.

This eyeball-searing entry brings all the verve, dynamism and excitement of an outdoor festival to the racing scene, bringing with it a litany of next-gen features to cement it as the posterchild of the Xbox Series X’s most impressive features – check it all out in our Dirt 5 review.

Graphics

The reason racing games often the first on the scene is that they skirt closest to the uncanny valley, with those corner-of-your-eye moments when you could swear it’s a Ken Block highlight reel rather than a video game.

Dirt 5’s visuals have an immediate impact, an art style aiming for exaggerated hyper-realism complete with a dayglo user interface, rather than striving towards photo-realistic locales.

That’s not to say the mixture of rally and off-road cars aren’t realistic – they are fully liveried and everything from legends like the Lancia Stratos and Ford RS Cosworth to open-wheeled death traps like the Ariel Atom are on display.

The next-gen difference also arrives in the form of three options for visuals – resolution, image quality, and 120Hz.

The first offers an uncapped frame rate, with visuals running up to the mythical 4K.

The second naturally aims for a smoother ride but pares back the graphical flourishes in areas, whilst the 120Hz mode finally gives console gamers super-smooth motion at 4K, but really skims off anything but the core experience to deliver blistering responsiveness.

An impressive technical feat, but one which takes the game’s looks firmly into what’s now last-gen territory – an exciting indication of things to come, but it seems a touch too far in this installment.

That’s not to say the game looks bad at any time, the sun-dappled courses look as beautiful as the road courses are brutal, and the track deformation of both mud and ice is impressive, evoking memories of another launch title in the Playstation 3’s Motorstorm.

The locales travelled to are characters in their own right – the winding narrow track snaking through the favelas of Brazil, showered in rain and lit up by lightning, or the frozen wilds of Norway, all are rendered with a loving sheen but an art for the dramatic – making for heart-stopping moments during every race.

Audio

The graphics may be a little cartoony in Dirt 5, but the sounds are serious.

The throaty roar of your engine is intense (all the better when wearing headphones), and a real sense of audio space enables you to effectively know when – and where – your competitors are bearing down on you.

Each time you trade paint is a visceral experience, and the rev of each car sounds incredibly unique, giving the game an immersive edge.

If Dirt 5’s virtual lanyards and colour scheme evoke the vibe of a four-wheeled festival, then the soundtrack cements it.

Achingly current without veering into cringe, huge acts like The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and The Killers headline the playlist, with pleasant surprises like Pearl Jam, Floating Points and Chaka Khan’s anthem ‘Like Sugar’ rounding out what might be the most eclectic driving game soundtrack to date.

One issue we did find on the rare occasion was audio dropping out during play, but a quick reset of the Series X and we were back in the party.

Gameplay

This is where Dirt 5 really comes into its own.

Unabashed, unadulterated fun, with the stuffiness of its contemporaries replaced with an arcade vibe, but sporting serious racing mechanics under the bonnet.

The career mode provides the core of your Dirt journey – a well-crafted selection of courses and cars, the usual tenets of XP and upgrades, and given a novel narrative structure by the greatest actors in the biz – Nolan North and Troy Baker.

Their natural charisma and attitude give the game added swagger, playing racing luminaries and adversaries respectively and spurring you through the campaign with surprising depth.

This is all for nothing if the driving isn’t great, and thankfully the handling model of these cars is fantastic – different classes of car truly have their own weight, position on the track and you really gain a sense of how to throw them around corners in no time.

The globe-trotting nature of Dirt 5 – from Morocco to Norway and New York – means that there are an array of surfaces to race on, all having their own unique feel.

That sense of the back end getting away from you, to suddenly have the tires bite and streak home to a win is unrivaled, and quickly have you grinning from ear-to-ear.

That feeling is more keenly felt when you opt for the frame rate or 120Hz modes, scaling back the graphics, but materially enhancing the feel of these vehicles as you wrench them around the tracks spraying gravel into the stands.

Race types vary too, from point-to-point and time trials as well as traditional circuit races, but also marking a comeback for Gymkhana.

These crafty courses force you to push your car to the limit, a score-based system rewarding drifts, jumps and clever cornering.

An arena editor named Playgrounds gives almost limitless potential to create your own courses – anything from super-ramps that would scare Evil Knievel to a tight circuit primed for drifting is a few button taps and some concentration away.

Verdict

Dirt 5 is a pulse-pounding, exhilarating ride, made all the more impressive with the trappings of a next-gen sheen in 120Hz frame rates and incredible audio.

Doing away with the increasingly staid formula of simulation racing games, it’s a breath of fresh – if somewhat dusty – air.

Give it some time, work past the initial set of courses and it opens up into a varied, engaging rally experience that takes some interesting left turns to add flesh to its bones with the career mode.

Even without that, Dirt 5 is a pleasurable playbox of some of the best rally cars to ever grace the tarmac, and leaves one heck of a positive impression.

Ella-Grace Figueroa

The post Dirt 5 Review, Xbox Series X | CRISP. Gaming appeared first on CRISP..

The House of Rolls-Royce today revealed images of a Bespoke Red Phantom, commissioned to benefit (RED), the global charity and its fight to end AIDS. First sketches of the red-themed creation were revealed by the world’s leading luxury manufacturer seven months ago at the Sotheby’s Galleries in New York City. The Bespoke Phantom will be unveiled at a gala event at the One Thousand Museum in Miami, on Wednesday 4 December, as Sotheby’s and RM Sotheby’s launch an exclusive online auction which will run until 13 December 2019 on sothebys.com. Proceeds from the auction, after costs, will benefit (RED)’s fight to end AIDS.

The successful bidder will have the unique opportunity to collaborate with one of the world’s most respected contemporary artists, Mickalene Thomas. The artist will create a custom wrap for the exterior of the motor car, based on an original work of art inspired by the Red Phantom for the collector. When the digital hammer falls, the ultimate bidder will be the proud owner of the Red Phantom, a personalized artwork by Ms. Thomas and the honour of having supported (RED) in its mission.

“We’re so grateful to Rolls-Royce for donating profits from the Red Phantom to help with the fight to end AIDS. We need all forces mobilized against this pandemic which is the leading cause of death among young women. We also want to thank Mickalene Thomas for her creative genius and support of this auction to help the Global Fund eradicate AIDS.” Jennifer Lotito, COO, RED.

About RED

(RED) was founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage businesses and people in the fight against AIDS. (RED) partners with the world’s most iconic brands that contribute proceeds from (RED)-branded goods and services to the Global Fund.

To date, (RED) has generated more than $600 million for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to support HIV/AIDS grants in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. 100 percent of that money goes to work on the ground – no overhead is taken. Global Fund grants that (RED) supports have impacted over 140 million people with prevention, treatment, counseling, HIV testing and care services. For more information, please see www.red.org

About Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas is best known for her elaborate paintings composed of rhinestones, acrylic and enamel. She makes paintings, collages, photography, video, and installations that draw on art history and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of female sexuality, beauty, and power. Blurring the distinction between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary, Thomas constructs complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors in order to examine how identity, gender, and sense-of-self are informed by the ways in which women are represented in art and popular culture.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt_QP3UHXTk/

Gallery

Max Boker

The post The (RED) Rolls Royce Phantom Commissioned with Mickalene Thomas To Help Fight AIDS. appeared first on CRISP..

Dubbed The Digital Cockpit, the new and upgraded dashboard will come as standard in the VW Golf and virtually all of the displays and controls are digital.

Touch sliders enable quick and intuitive access to temperature and volume controls, while a touch island under the infotainment system also provides direct access to additional air conditioning functions, the assistance systems, and – depending on the equipment included – driving modes and parking assistants.

In a second touch island, the light and vision functions have also been repositioned and brought together: the light, along with the windscreen and rear window heating, is now operated using a digital panel arranged higher up on the dashboard to the left of the instruments, even further improving the brand’s characteristic straightforward drive experience.

There is then an option to upgrade the Digital Cockpit to a High-End Cockpit. The new Innovision cockpit will allow the give the driver a larger range of functions, mainly a 10-inch navigation system and a windscreen HUD.

The Golf will also have voice command support and you can activate your system by simply saying “Hello Volkswagen”, “Take me home” or “I’m Cold”. Dual microphones inside the vehicle mean it can quickly establish who is speaking and respond accordingly. E.g. identifying which interior climate control zone needs changing.

The new golf’s connectivity will be enabled by an online connectivity unit (OCU) with an integrated eSIM, to which all infotainment systems in the Golf are coupled as standard.

Rogan Chambers

The post The New Futuristic VW Golf Digital Cockpit appeared first on CRISP..

https://youtu.be/eelYBoBxf-I

No Time To Die is the first movie to feature the New Defender, the latest legendary vehicle to star in a James Bond car chase sequence. The New Defender has been tested by the 007 expert stunt team in the most extreme off-road conditions, demonstrating its unstoppable nature.

Land Rover puts fans inside the New Defender on the set of No Time To Die, the 25^th official James Bond film, in a teaser video released to announce its continued partnership with EON Productions.

Lee Morrison, James Bond Stunt Co-ordinator, said: “Designing and co-ordinating the action sequences for the Bond franchise requires a non-compromising mindset. We needed an unstoppable vehicle to help us battle against the elements, steep descents and river crossings so we chose the new Defender. I’m beyond impressed that the Defender is not only back but much, much better!”

Footage captured during the filming of the upcoming movie gives a unique, behind-the-scenes view of stunt co-ordinator Lee Morrison and stunt driver Jess Hawkins at work.

Gallery

The New Defender provides ground clearance of 291mm and world-class off-road geometry, giving the Defender 110 approach, breakover and departure angles of 38, 28 and 40 degrees (Off Road height) respectively. Its maximum wading depth of 900mm is supported by a new Wade programme in the Terrain Response 2 system, so drivers can ford deep water with complete confidence.

Land Rover’s design team worked closely with Special Effects and Action Vehicles Supervisor Chris Corbould on the specification of the Defenders in the film. Based on the Defender X model in Santorini Black, with darkened skid pans, 20in dark finish wheels and professional off-road tyres, they were the first Defenders to be built at Jaguar Land Rover’s new production facility in Nitra, Slovakia.

Britain’s biggest vehicle manufacturer has a long-standing partnership with EON Productions on the Bond films, which began in 1983 when a Range Rover Convertible appeared in Octopussy.

Alongside the Defenders, No Time To Die also features the Range Rover Sport SVR, Series III Land Rover and Range Rover Classic.

No Time To Die, is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. The film will be released globally in cinemas from April 2 2020 in the U.K. through Universal Pictures International and in the U.S on April 10, from Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios via their United Artists Releasing banner.

Max Boker

The post Behind The Scenes With The New Land Rover Defender in 007’s “No Time To Die” appeared first on CRISP..

Lauded luxury car manufacturer Bentley is taking the car browsing experience to the cloud, launching an app to enable prospective customers to get up close and personal with the new Flying Spur.

With the real thing set to roll off the production line early next year, the Bentley AR Visualiser – available on both iOS and Android devices – enables us to kick the virtual tyres of their flagship four-door sedan, looking at both its interior and exterior in exquisite digital detail.

It gets cleverer, as you can not only choose the scale of the virtual vehicle all the way from Matchbox-sized to 1:1 on the driveway, but are also able to take it for an AR-enabled spin from the comfort of your living room.

The Flying Spur AR app is available now on both the Apple App Store, and Google Play.

Rogan Chambers

The post Bentley Offers Augment Reality Showroom For New Flying Spur appeared first on CRISP..

Aston Martin continues to be the brand of choice, with the trio of the classic DB5, the sweeping lines of the V8 Vantage, and the futuristic Valhalla concept car already confirmed.

Rounding this out is now the DBS Superleggera, the brand’s flagship vehicle and recent winner of Sportscar of the Year at the Motor Awards, marking representation for all eras of the lauded supercar brand.

The greatest ever car line-up for a Bond movie?

We think so.#JamesBondDay https://t.co/Np2xgUqYf6

— Aston Martin (@astonmartin) October 5, 2019

With Aston themselves crowning this as the finest selection of models yet seen in a James Bond film, excitement grows for the April 2020 release date.

Carmen Adkins

The post Aston Martin Boasts Finest Lineup Ever For Bond 25, Includes New £225k Superleggera appeared first on CRISP..